Costa Cruises Reviews

Summary: A Europe-based mainstream cruise line owned by Carnival. Ships are structurally identical to Carnival. Recommended for European cruisers who do not speak English - good for bargains in the Caribbean.

User Reviews

Costa Favolosa was the worst cruise I have ever been on. I have
been on many cruise lines.

The food quality was only a little better than a high school
cafeteria food. If people like this cruise they have never been on
any other cruise. The entertainment was poor. The ship had no real
food choices but italian and that was very poor. All
other ships have multiple food types and different places to eat.
If the main dining hall was open the buffet was closed along with
any other options.

The lines were always very long because they only would have one
place offering anything at one time on the ship.
They nickled and dimed you for every thing and
the quality was poor.

The spa hot tubs stem rooms and relaxation rooms were
extra. they had no ice cream unless you paid extra and only at
limited time offerings . They had no soda drinks or even
juice with out paying more. all other ships I have been
on at least had juice through out the day or soda during
the main meal of the day included.

They had no piano bar jazz club. no comedy club. the
excursion desk was disorganized. One of my excursions was even
cancelled and

another was set for the wrong language. The management told the
room staff not to waist towels making towel animals which
on all other cruises is a custom. There was no onboard welcoming
party. The alcoholic drinks were watered down. If this was my first
cruise I wound never do another.

Filthy buffet area chairs. Unchanging and low grade buffet food
the entire 7 day trip. Reminded me of how we used to treat the
livestock on the farm. (Well treated animals, but pretty basic
menu). Pleasant but tired and disheartened-appearing staff.

"Entertainment' appeared contrived and pushed hard . And, holy
cow, was the bass LOUD to the point of drowning out the singers in
nearly every venue. where did they get these sound engineers?

Whole scenario seemed like they didn't really have their act
together. really poorly timed and very few ports of call, make
excursions really brief and poorly executed. Rio fireworks ( about
1/2 hour) was spectacular. rest of the trip was a bust.

Finely tuned ripoff experience. Nothing to drink, not even
water, unless you pay for it, at their supposed fine-dining dinner
experience. Marginally palatable food. Palatable, but definitely
not excellent, or even good, cuisine (I was raised by and married
to fantastic Italian and French cooks, so, yes, I do know what I am
talking about.)

Experienced cruise travelers and ship staff all

commented on how badly the Costa line has deteriorated since "that
American company" (Carnival - actually and American/Israeli
billionaire owned company) took over. Sad, but apparently true. Too
bad, they no only killed any remote inclination of mine to ever set
foot on an ocean going cruise liner again, but they also seem to be
informing the world of what ripoff masters large American corporate
enterprises are.

I could go on with examples of an overall unpleasant experience.
But you get the picture. Without exaggeration, a root canal is a
more pleasant experience.

If you like cruising, research carefully. And pick anything but
Carnival associated enterprises.

My son (4) and I were on the Baltic itinerary. The food was
great. The staff was attentive. But the Excursion Desk overcharged
me by half and simply refused to take it off my bill. The Tour
Manager, Samuela Sambo, accused me of lying about a hop on hop off
bus and said I would not get a refund of 14e. Amazing. I'll never
choose Costa again.

I took a cruise on the Costa Fortuna departing from Copenhagen.
She is 10 years old and looks her age.

The good things:

Size of the cabin was very convenient. Lots of cabinets and a
large bed which was very comfortable.

Many shelves in the bathroom and safety measures not to fall or
slip.

The balcony we booked was small but with a table and two
comfortable chairs and it was nice sitting there.

Staff was very friendl, the steward efficient ,the elevators
speedy and lots of them.

Evening performances at the theater were quite entertaining
despite lasting only 45 minutes.

5th floor has several bars with singers and dance floors. quite
enjoyable.

Before going on the cruise we were often in contact with the
company's representatives and they did their best to help us with
anything.

The bad things:

The air conditioner was very weak and hardly noticeable. And it
was hot.

In the bathroom we had almost no hot water and it was very
unpleasant.

TV was huge with a small screen (TV not even LCD).

Both the TV and the remote only allowed to jump forward one
channel or change volume.

The picture quality was poor and unclear

and that could not be improved.

There were a lot of the ship's channels and the rest were
Italian. There was only one news channel in English, the BBC.

We talked with the steward on these issues and we were told
that's that.

Room's water room had terrible taste, no way we could drink
that.

We had to buy the ship's water, each liter for 3 euros!!!

Even that had very funny taste.

When I talked to other passengers who were on other companies'
cruises no one has encountered such a problem. I understand the
ship is 10 years old but is that an excuse for such disregard?

Breakfast and lunch were very scarce and very poor selection.
The same the whole seven days/. Other people from other cruises
were just amazed. For example, there were only two Yellow Cheese
kinds, throughout the voyage.

Everyone is familiar with the disaster that happened last year
to the Concordia. I'll have to assume that because of fall in
demand Costa is looking for every way to cut expenses and get
passengers to pay more...

Another example of that would be the outrageous cost of 10 euros
for one hour for the ship's Wi-Fi!

Tours:

The ship was not sailing to Bergen although most other tours
do.

In Geiranger we had to get off not directly to the harbour but
through a boat and on return everyone had to wait half an hour in
the heat for our turn to get back to the ship.

On the third day we came to Skjolden from nine in the morning
till five thirty. It's a tiny place with nothing realy to do if you
wanted to go ashore. We took a tour of the glacier and drove for
three hours there and back ond then only saw him From afar. There
was no nice scenery on the way as well.

At Oslo we arrived at seven in the morning and stayed only until
12 only which wasn't enough for a proper tour. We were told the
reason for that was that the ship wanted to get in time to the next
stop, Warnemunde, so that people wanting to do a tour in Berlin
could get there in time.

As we didn't need that tour and there was nothing to do in
Warnemunde we had to stay in the ship from nine and a half to eight
in the evening!

Another annoying problem was that in each of the docking points
there weren't any taxis or other means of transporatation besides
that of the ship's. Friends who had other companies in this area
told us that wasn't the case in their cruises.

In conclusion, this was my first cruise and next time if there
is one I'll be wiser in choosing the right cruising company.

This ship when brand new must have been spectacular, too bad
they don't seem to be able to keep it clean. Dirty windows, dirty
carpet, dirty drapes, furniture, Sticky tables to eat or just read
or play games on. But it had some good points as well and I'll
discuss them first but it will be hard to do considering the
limitations and exceptions we noted.

Our dinner waiter and bus boy were outstanding! They always
remembered to bring my wife and I a pitcher of Iced tea at dinner
and plenty of cream (not just milk) for our coffee. The Dinner
entree choices were very limited, and no steak or lobster was ever
offered to us. What they did make available was generally very
tasty, though often the meat was overcooked and tough. The limited
choices available for appetizers, soups, salads, pasta and
desserts, however, were generally very good. Just don't count on
Haute cuisine or many options.

The cruise staff, those people who provide daily activities,
danced with the passengers in the ballroom dancing lounge and
participated in a few of the

shows, were probably the hardest working group we've ever had. They
did their best to keep us entertained. That said, however, there
were many long periods during the day when no planned activities
were available on the ship. Thank goodness they provided us with a
scrabble game to use while on board.

If you love Ballroom dancing either as a participant or as a
watcher, this is your ship. All evening long, every evening you
could dance your night away. Unfortunately that was about all you
could do. Don't get me wrong, they did have shows every night but
not all were worth attending. For example, the first night they
showed a Frank Sinatra concert movie. That's it, a 45 minute movie
of a 1970's concert. There was the obligatory crew show, the
passenger talent show, three song and dance shows performed by the
on-board troupe (who were good but not spectacular), and only three
"professional" acts (one magician, one soul-gospel singer who sang
as loudly as she could to make up for her merely adequate voice,
and an Italian crooner who couldn't hold a long note.) In ten days
only three (two mediocre) professional acts? That's what you might
expect on a seven not a ten night cruise. The cruise staff did on
several evenings put on games for the cruisers and did their very
best to make them amusing and fun events. Overall, there was little
to do in the evenings unless you like to dance or if you like to
spend a lot of money drinking, drinking at the many bars on the
ship where they did provide musicians and sometimes singers to
entertain you. But for those who don't or can't drink a lot, all
you were left to do is gamble in the casino.

The rooms, we had an inside room. were adequate in size, larger
than on some ships we traveled and the water pressure of the shower
was among the best we've experienced. The TVs were relics of the
80's or 90's and were both poor in visual and audio quality. The
cabin steward did an adequate job, but did nothing exceptionally
well and had to reminded several times to bring us extra towels.
The level of cleanliness was barely adequate, as ground-in dirt was
evident everywhere you looked.

This is an international ship. Those of us from the US were in
the minority. 80% (or more) of the passengers were European, with
Italians and Germans accounting for the majority of the European
passengers. Hence all announcements had to made in FIVE languages,
Italian (this is of course an Italian ship) German, French, Spanish
and English. Problem was the crew, who is mostly Italian, when
speaking in English, did so with a hard Italian accent, putting
emphasis on the wrong syllables and often speaking English at the
same very fast rate Italian is spoken (English and German are among
the slowest spoken languages) AND to complicate matters more, once
the Italian and German messages were read, those passengers would
begin to engage in conversation thus drowning out the messages
spoken in the other three languages. Only when the made the
announcement first in English, or right after the French and/or
Spanish language messages were spoken, did we have a decent chance
to hear our English spoken messages. PS most of the English
speakers on board were Canadian. They were a great group of people
to hang out with and we often formed teams of "North Americans" to
compete against the Italians and Germans during the games of skill
and knowledge put on during the day light hours. If it wasn't for
our Canadian friends we would have had difficulty in finding any
English speakers on board, though Costa did their best to try to
seat people at the restaurants by the language they spoke, and
organize the excursions similarly. Then there is one more
observation we made about our Italian and German shipmates. Many,
many many of them were rude, often pushing and elbowing you out of
the way to get to something they wanted, to get a head of you,
cutting in on lines, etc. Generally they were both obnoxious and
unaware of the words "excuse me" (or the German or Italian
counterparts which sound very much like excuse me). If those of us
from the US are the so called "Ugly Americans", then the Germans or
Italians should be known as the "Medusan Europeans!" Be prepared.
I'm originally from the NY metropolitan area so I know how to apply
defensive skills when I have to and I found myself resorting to
them way too often.

We had two life boat drills while on board. I wonder why? Could
the Concordia incident have anything to do with that?

Food other than dinner. Breakfast - unless you waited on line at
Omelet Station in the buffet restaurant the eggs were usually runny
and undercooked. The bacon was dead the sausages undercooked and
everything was luke-cool (luke-warm would have given it more credit
than it deserved) to downright cold. The restaurant was no better
for breakfast. No cream only milk or skim milk for coffee. No
pancake syrup for the cold tough pancakes and french toast. An
overall underwhelming experience. Lunch - In the Restaurant was not
bad. Food often was warm. Variety was very limited but it was warm.
At the buffet, well it often looked as bad as it tasted. Best
lunches we had were off the ship in port! Midnight buffet - what
buffet? There was none! They served the leftover pastries from
Dinner and only at the Casino. Wonder why they make you go to the
casino to get them, hmm, could it be they wanted you to gamble!
There was a pizza station at night, but usually it was a simple
cheese pizza or vegetable pizza, rarely did it contain any meat
toppings. Oh, if you wanted ice tea at night, you had to hunt for
it and often there was none. So your choices were plain water or
Soda at $2.75 plus tip (added automatically to the cost) per CAN of
soda!

There was no soda package for adults and if you wanted a drink
package each member of your party, whether they drink or not, had
to buy it at $26/day for every day of the cruise. This was
considered an 11 day cruise and that meant shelling out over $275
per person. Or you could buy individual cocktails at $7.80 (plus
the mandatory tip) per drink.

Despite the above, we liked the ports we went to and we meet
some very nice people on board which made the journey a pleasant
one despite the shortcomings of the ship.

One final point and it is a personal issue that upset me and may
or may not seem to be a big deal to others considering cruising on
a Costa ship. On the 7th day of the cruise my foot was injured when
the plastic drainage grate surrounding the hot tub collapsed as I
tried to enter the hot tub. I believe that the individual 8" long
grate pieces which were held in-place by plastic male connectors
fitting into the female receptacles of the next piece of grating
had broken repeatedly before I tried to enter the hot tub. Each
time breaking of more and more of the male connectors until there
weren't enough to maintain the structural integrity of the grates.
My foot was cut in two places and pieces of the few remaining male
connectors broke off and punctured my foot. I had to receive
medical attention by the ship's doctor who had to remove these
pieces of plastic where they punctured my foot. The medical
treatment I received was very good.

I understand accidents can happen, but the ship's crew needed to
have repaired this grate long before I stepped on it. Even after my
accident, they merely shifted the pieces of the grate around,
leaving gaps in the grate, where another incident like mine could
happen. What upsets me the most was at first the ship's Purser told
me that I would be charged for the medical treatment I received
(which turned out to be wrong as I was reassured 12 hours later by
the Ship's Chief Medical Officer that I would not be charged since
my injury was not my fault), but even worse, neither while on board
the ship or to this day (6 days after I disembarked) has anyone
from the ship's crew (company) or from Costa (or its parent company
Carnivale) contacted me to ask me how I was feeling or doing!! Even
though I filled out the ship's Security accident report, not one
word!! Its as if they simply don't care. Maybe they don't!

lovely room, evening food good Philippine and indian staff
lovely lots of beds and no bed reserving_ a new experience for
me!!!

the awful bits, complete cock up with payment details, they
provided the wrong bacs details and it took 4 weeks to resolve!!
(should have smelt a rat then) claustrophobic ship, dark below no
window, felt cramped and unpleasant, embarkation was a complete
shambles, took hours only 4hours at each port to try to force you
to use the extortionate ship excursions, 2 posts were very
isolated. independent travel at the post was was virtually
impossible drinks very expensive plus 15 % !!! disembarkation was
also very poor, the staff provided no help loading bags, the bus
driver looked bored and just dumped everyone at terminal 3 of
airport without any explanation that this may not be your terminal,
noisy all the time, smokey in most of the bar areas and virtually
nothing to do during the day at sea or evening unless you like
bingo. The buffet restaurant was a virtual scrum area, closed in
the evening

, coffee not offered with evening meal, 2 coffees six euros, (non
smoking areas a joke) tips are 49 euros compulsory each, result:
apathetic staff i went to none of the evening entertainments but
all were described as awful by others muster was a very poor affair
no privacy in male changing rooms after sauna, pool attendant left
door open!! not a pretty sight.

spoke to some serial costa cruisers who said the larger ships
were much better, this ship is about to go for refurbish, staff
need to be properly educated as well changing the name to neu
romantica equivalent to windscale being renamed to sellafield. I
would have grave reservations about costa again. I went as i did
not believe the summaries , i should have listened.

If you are a first time cruiser who really like smoking, kitsch
decor, understand italian, do not mind waiting in cues everywhere
from restaurants to boarding to elevators, this is your cruise.

If you have ever been to a proper cruise before, do not like
smoke everywhere and do not enjoy waiting in your vacation stay
away from Costa, and it is not even cheap (compared to big cruise
lines). This was our 7th cruise and we love cruising, but we
geniunly disliked the overall experience of Costa. The times at
ports were just couple of hours, combined with long
boarding/unboarding, it was simply not worth the trouble. There
were a few safety related issues that we have observed like razor
sharp edges (unrounded sharp edges of mirrors on walls).

South East Asia cruise. Paid for a double cabin and received a
small single cabin with a fold up cot as a second bed, the cot was
placed at the end of the bed, the cot matress had to be pushed to
the side to open the bathroom door, this cabin was classed as an
upgrade, no compensation. Cruise was good the cabin was crap.

This cruise line cancelled ports and then had an "engine" out
and canceled all the rest of the ports They gave everyone 50euros.
Oh if someone paid $1500. for an inside cabin should someone like
us who paid $4700. should also get only 50euros? Did I mention that
the Captain and bridge crew never came out and talked to the
passengers about this so called emergency!!! It was so bad that the
German passengers and the Italian passengers got on the stage to
protest the fact that the captained did not come out that they took
control of the stage so there were no shows!!!! We floated over six
days and received nothing and nothing from the Captain until two
days before the cruise ended.Is it any wonder that they booed the
Captain? Shame on them and Carnival.

Costa Mediterranea is a fine vessel. Good crew and good food.
However Costa as a company appear to have DOUBLE STANDARDS. E.U.
citizens are compelled to pay a daily service charge which varies
between 6 euros per day per adult and 11 US dollars depending which
part of the world you are sailing in.

This service charge is optional if you are a US, Canadian or
South American citizen!!! Why the difference? No one on board the
Costa Mediterranea was prepared to say. With over 2000 passengers
on board and about half paying a compulsory service charge and the
other half being able to opt out of paying there was much dissent
on board.

COSTA SHOULD GET ITS ACT TOGETHER AND ALL PASSENGERS SHOULD BE
TREATED THE SAME